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sresener

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Hi everyone this year I have made a sizeable investment into my lights. I went from normal leds to full out smart leds.

All of my ws2811 icicle leds would start to act up once the temperature dropped to 1.4f parts of them would simply stop working. I would take the string down bring it inside and watch it start working as it warmed up. 

I took a video what was happening and even showed how a heat gun could get them working for a few seconds, I passed this onto the supplier and got a "good to know" followed up with a "we put them in a freezer and they worked fine".  

Also this issue would happen in parts of the string never the whole string so I heated the last led and the rest would work once the led would cool it would either not work or the rest of the string would stay stuck.

Moving forward I gave this company thousands of dollars this year and I plan to double my display for next year. Who would you recommend would be a good supplier to know that with proof they will stand by there items. Heck I feel I would get better service directly from china and save a ton on top of it.

 

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Not much consumer stuff runs well at those temps. You might leave the lights ON at a very dim level.

Unfortunately, you get to play the customs game if you need LOR repairs, so you need to weigh their outstanding service benefit over the risk of overseas  (and shipping delays).

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My lights are all ws2811 pixels even when there on full they just stop working. or stick on until physically unplugged or receive data at warmer temps. 

Out of all my lights only the one type of light acted up (my icicles) they are so predictable that I check the temps and decide to use them or not.. The rest at least 5000 pixels work flawless  even down at -18 f.  

and the funny thing is all the overseas stuff is what works the best. I assumed buying from what I thought a reputable place and paying a lot more would give me some sort of security. Guess I was wrong.

From what I have been reading lightorama seems to have great customer service and should of been my choice in suppliers.

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9 hours ago, sresener said:

My lights are all ws2811 pixels even when there on full they just stop working. or stick on until physically unplugged or receive data at warmer temps. 

Out of all my lights only the one type of light acted up (my icicles) they are so predictable that I check the temps and decide to use them or not.. The rest at least 5000 pixels work flawless  even down at -18 f.  

and the funny thing is all the overseas stuff is what works the best. I assumed buying from what I thought a reputable place and paying a lot more would give me some sort of security. Guess I was wrong.

From what I have been reading lightorama seems to have great customer service and should of been my choice in suppliers.

Its all "overseas stuff". 

However buying from LOR simply means an easier exchange/ return policy if under warranty.

JR

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It's all from overseas.  You can either buy directly from china (i.e. aliexpress), or U.S. delaers who import from China.  

 

LOR has top notch support but you do pay somewhat of a premium for the  light produces, not so much sofor controllers. 

 

I've bought 2k or so of lights over the past 5 yeas (dump and smart rgb)  and have had only 2 minor failures in a single 12mm bulb or 1 pixel in a ws2811 strip. 

 

I have purchesed everything from holidaycore, diyledexpress and a favorite ebay'er.   With basically no failures during initial first year of operation, I'\ve never had to test anyof these seller's warrenty proceedures. 

 

I'\m in Minnesota and have had no issues with cold weather effects on light performance. 

 

BTW, as far a pixel controller, Sandevics and Falcon has greatu customer support and I own both.   Would assume the LOR Pixie line of smart controllers would be a good option since "great support" is just what LOR does. 

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The lights that are acting up were purchased from Wowlights.

I wonder if the oversea suppliers turn stock over faster so you get updated ic's quicker 

Edited by sresener
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 I was reading about the falcon f48 controller, it seems like a great item for displays that are further away one simple cat5 cable to a small control board. 

Does anyone know if lor is working on somthing similar. 

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4 hours ago, sresener said:

The lights that are acting up were purchased from Wowlights.

I wonder if the oversea suppliers turn stock over faster so you get updated ic's quicker 

Have you contacted Mike & the people at Wowlights? I’ve dealt with them for years too and they are pretty customer service minded as well. They may have had a bad batch. Might not. But they will be honest about it. 

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5 hours ago, sresener said:

 I was reading about the falcon f48 controller, it seems like a great item for displays that are further away one simple cat5 cable to a small control board. 

Does anyone know if lor is working on somthing similar. 

How far you trying to push? They are almost the same but I am pushing farther than LOR says they will with my pixies. Almost double.

You have to remember that sellers are going to understate rather than over state some features to save customer complaints.

If LOR states they could push data and power 200’ from the controller to first pixel and the customers could only get 80’ that would be bad on LOR.

You have to test, there are a lot of variables that can factor in.

I use 100% LOR controllers and software. Keeping it simple.

JR

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I have talked too and emailed Mike and Brian many times, they seem great at technical service.

It get cold here and what works in my basement does not work the same outside.  I find that the absolute most I can push a run is 15ft without a null pixel. I will be trying to push about 80ft

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23 minutes ago, sresener said:

I have talked too and emailed Mike and Brian many times, they seem great at technical service.

It get cold here and what works in my basement does not work the same outside.  I find that the absolute most I can push a run is 15ft without a null pixel. I will be trying to push about 80ft

You still need to test.

But if you know this then place the controllers on or as close to the first pixel as you can.

I am in Alabama but originally from upstate NY. Down here normally the temps do not get that low but last year at -10 deg F the drone and all pixels froze up. 

The mini LEDs worked and that was all. I was recording video admthings started getting slower and slower before they all stopped.

Very next day at 36 deg everything started working again.

it was funny with the drone, it landed itself and would not get the green lights to take off.

My point- at that time I didn’t have any long runs of pixels- all were in the prop no

more that a few feet away from controller.

So it may not matter how close you place thempixels in some extreme berry cold climates. I am glad you posted this though because when that happened to me last year i was thinking what people in your situation/ climates are dealing with.

Glad to

know im not the only one that saw pixels freeze.

JR

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7 hours ago, sresener said:

 I was reading about the falcon f48 controller, it seems like a great item for displays that are further away one simple cat5 cable to a small control board. 

Does anyone know if lor is working on somthing similar. 

I believe the F48 is a deferential board that is connected to a full service Falcon F16v3.   From the differential board, you can run up to 250ft of cat5 to a differential reciever board that has the actual pixel outlet ports.  I'm use 3 reciever boards this year and they work great, as does the F16v3. 

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34 minutes ago, mpageler said:

I believe the F48 is a deferential board that is connected to a full service Falcon F16v3.   From the differential board, you can run up to 250ft of cat5 to a differential reciever board that has the actual pixel outlet ports.  I'm use 3 reciever boards this year and they work great, as does the F16v3. 

I assumed it could control 12 reciever boards and each reciever board can control 4 channels and with power injection I can safely run 150 pixels per channel.

So with one simple cat5 cable and power injection I can run 12 sets of 50 pixels and not have to worry about long data runs. (if that makes sense)

For the mega tree, that atm is still being designed  in my head. I was going to use a pixicon16 since most of it will be needed for the one prop. (less expensive and I should not have to inject as much power).

I would prefer to keep as much lor as possible since besides a bad cat5 cable I had zero issues.

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Falcon also Just released (or at least I just found out about it) the F amp.

It is an Extender as well. Not sure if it will work for all smart pixel controllers but it sounds like

it will

JR

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1 hour ago, sresener said:

I assumed it could control 12 reciever boards and each reciever board can control 4 channels and with power injection I can safely run 150 pixels per channel.

So with one simple cat5 cable and power injection I can run 12 sets of 50 pixels and not have to worry about long data runs. (if that makes sense)

For the mega tree, that atm is still being designed  in my head. I was going to use a pixicon16 since most of it will be needed for the one prop. (less expensive and I should not have to inject as much power).

I would prefer to keep as much lor as possible since besides a bad cat5 cable I had zero issues.

A 12x50 tree would not need PI at all. Not sure if you mis typed or thought you would need.

You can have your show computer 100’s of feet from The prop to the controller. (Your cat5 comment)

One Pixie16 which is LORs most affordable pixel controller has no Problem with a 16x50 and as another member I helped set up she had 170 x24 matrix ( if I recall right)

With either the Pixie16 or pixcon16 you can run 170 pixels per port -‘may need pI 

That story is Posted within my Pixie16 configuration sticky thread

JR

Edited by dibblejr
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14 hours ago, dibblejr said:

Falcon also Just released (or at least I just found out about it) the F amp.

It is an Extender as well. Not sure if it will work for all smart pixel controllers but it sounds like

it will

JR

I stumbled on a video about the F-amp and posted about it a few weeks ago.  I was excited until the feedback on post was that it wasn't really an "extender" but more of a "null pixel" accessory.  Do a thread search and you'll find the post.

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24 minutes ago, sresener said:

I was planning a 32 or 24 x 100 tree

Then you still should not need PI with any of LOR controllers. It’s that 101 that “may” lead you to need it.

But seriously, everyone would like/ love to have one that large until you start setting it up, storing, movingbit around

Test first

JR

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2 minutes ago, mpageler said:

I stumbled on a video about the F-amp and posted about it a few weeks ago.  I was excited until the feedback on post was that it wasn't really an "extender" but more of a "null pixel" accessory.  Do a thread search and you'll find the post.

I read about it, IMO it sounds more like a repeater than a null pixel. For anyone needing it though the price is not rediculuosly high and I am almost sure the Falcon owner would refund if it was returned for not meeting expectations. At one time I spoke with him on the phone and he seemed very customer friendly.

Or the question could be asked to Falcon up front maybe they haven’t tested on LOR products yet. Maybe they are not intended for LOR products.

JR

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